Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer
From: ifunltd@xs1.xs4all.nl (ifunltd)
Subject: Re: OS for transp..?
Organization: XS4ALL, networking for the masses
Date: 22 Nov 1994 06:49:01 GMT
Message-ID: <3as48t$ntr@news.xs4all.nl>

robert klang (t92rk@hh.se) wrote:
: 	Hi.
: 	I'm looking for information on commonly used OS for
: 	transputers. The material I get is to be used
: 	in a seminar about the subject "OS for transputers".
: 	All material or hints are very welcome.
:  
The most commonly used OS on transputers is: NONE AT ALL.
My experience with transputers tells me that this is a very sensible
thing, too. If you run Helios on all transputers in a network, you
waste a lot of memory and time on each of the processors, and this
is not really necessary. An OS on a singe chip machine may be nice,
and not intrude too much, since it can afford to only be there when
you need it. But on a distributed-memory machine things are different;
the OS needs to keep itself alive by checking its status on other
processors constantly.

The only fast OS I have seen in my 8 years of traveling through the
transputer world is TAOS (see BYTE of July 1994), but you would not
call this an OS in the traditional sense. For the rest, you would be
wise to call your course "OS and RS on transputers", where RS means
Runtime Systems. There are some pretty good RS around these days.
The difference ? An RS is the set of libraries that is linked to your
program code to make it work on a transputer network. If you have an
intelligent programming environment, it links only the routines neeed
for your specific application: i.e. the "memory and time waste" is 
limited to what is useful. And also, the routines are called when used,
and do not need to keep themselves (and your processors) busy all the
time.

Good luck with your course!

JANG (IF UnLtd)




